Amrapali looks to monetise land bank, rope in co-developers

Crisis-hit realty firm Amrapali group is making efforts to monetise its land bank and rope in co-developers to complete over 30,000 housing units in Noida and Greater Noida, the company's MD Anil Sharma said.
He also assured home buyers that the firm's promoters "are not running away from the country" and the company intends to complete all its ongoing projects.
Buyers have been protesting due to huge delays in completion of projects amid reports about the company going bankrupt and promoters planning to leave the country.
"We are not running away from the country. We intend to complete all our ongoing projects," Sharma told PTI.

He said the company's projects got delayed due to land acquisition issues in Greater Noida during 2011-15 and demand slowdown in the property market in the last several years.
Amrapali Director Shiv Priya said the company has approached Noida and Greater Noida's development authorities to allow co-developers in about 10 pending projects where the company has surplus land bank of 35 million sq ft.

The company has liabilities of about Rs 3,000 crore towards the two authorities and owes over Rs 1,000 crore to about 10 banks, while it needs about Rs 3,000 crore to complete its ongoing projects.
On the asset side, Amrapali has a licensed land bank of 35 million sq ft that it wants to monetise to other developers, besides receivables of Rs 4,300 crore from buyers.

"We have submitted proposals to Noida and Greater Noida authorities under Project Settlement Policy of Uttar Pradesh government that in all our projects, co-developers should be allowed to develop on our surplus land bank," Shiv Priya said.
The co-developers would provide funds to complete existing projects and also meet liabilities towards the two authorities as well as banks.
He said the company has also approached banks for restructuring of loans.
Bank of Baroda has approached the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) seeking to start proceedings for insolvency against Amrapali for defaulting on loans.
Shiv Priya said the company has an outstanding loan of about Rs 175 crore towards Bank of Baroda.

Earlier this week, all three company directors - Anil Kumar Sharma, Ajay Kumar and Shiv Priya - handed over their passports to the district administration.
Giving details about the projects, Shiv Priya said that the company had launched 11,000 units in Noida, of which 8,500 have been delivered and 2,500 are pending.
In Noida Extension, part of Greater Noida, the company had launched 28,000 units and all these are yet to be delivered. "Out of 28,000 units, structures of 15,000 units are ready and only finishing work is left," Shiv Priya said.
He said only 10,000 flats are delayed out of the 30,500 units in Noida and Greater Noida and asserted that the company is making efforts to deliver all flats by 2020.

Besides Amrapali, developers like Jaypee Infratech and Unitech too are facing protests by home buyers over delayed projects.
The real estate sector is facing a multi-year slowdown, leading to delays of six-seven years in handover of projects, forcing buyers to protest on streets and approach courts.